Much Needed Grace, Part 6

We are looking at Hebrews chapter 4 verses 11 to 16, and we've been here for a while helping you to understand the power of the Word of God and the need for grace because the Bible says that God has given us his Word, it's called the Word of Grace, and that Word of Grace is able to build us, strengthen us, confirm us, and establish us And so the power of God's Word is extremely important

The writer of Hebrews is writing to a Jewish audience, helping them to understand the power of God's Word to persuade them to understand the truth about the Messiah, who is all-sufficient, who is all-supreme, who is exactly who he said he was They needed to understand that They did not need to follow in the footsteps of their forefathers, who in the midst of all the the miracles that were before them did not believe They did not enter into rest because of their unbelief That is, they would not appropriate what they saw with what they said they believed

In other words, there was a lot of things that God did for them, but they would not commit their lives to following the Lord God of Israel Thus they died, the Bible says, in the wilderness, in unbelief Isn't it amazing that you can read Israel's history and understand that God did so much before them, yet for the most part, they did not believe So when the Messiah arrived and performed miracle after miracle after miracle, they still did not believe Because miracles don't save, only the message of the gospel truly saves

And in that story in Luke chapter 16 with the rich man and Lazarus, when the rich man said, if you send someone back from the dead, just send someone back who has died to tell my family about what this place is like, they will believe And what did the Lord God say? They have Moses and the prophets If they don't believe what they have already said, then they will not believe the one be raised from the dead What a profound statement See, we tend to think that if we are around the miraculous, it will change the condition of our heart But it doesn't Only God's word does that

The power of the living word of God That's why the Lord said to the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 55, a very familiar passage of scripture, For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so will my word be which goes forth from my mouth It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the manner for which I sent it

God says that his word, the all-powerful word of God, goes forth with a purpose and will always accomplish what God has for his word We told you last week that the word of God incarnate, God enfleshed, is equivalent to the word of God inspired That if you believe that God incarnate is the living God, then you must believe that his word is the living word That's why the writer of Hebrew says in verse number 12 that the word of God is living It is alive Because God's word is alive, his voice is alive Because God lives, the words that he speak live

That's why we have been brought forth by the living and abiding word of God Well, if God incarnate is equivalent to God's word inspired, then God himself is a powerful God His words are powerful words Powerful enough to to crush the soul, Jeremiah 23, 29 Powerful enough to convict the soul, 1 Corinthians 14, 24, and 25 Powerful enough to convert the soul, right? Psalm 19, verse number 7, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Powerful enough to cleanse the soul, John 15, verse number 3 You have been made clean through the word that I have spoken unto you

If it's powerful enough to cleanse the soul, then it's powerful enough to correct the soul, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 It takes that which is bent and straightens it out so that it knows the path for which it is to follow Also to conquer the enemy of our soul, as well as to comfort our soul And last week we told you that if God's word comforts a soul, it absolutely cheers the soul It brings great joy to the soul. I have found that that most Christians, unfortunately, don't exude joy And yet the apostle Paul would say, rejoice in the Lord always And again, I say rejoice

And I've only come to this conclusion that a joyless Christian is one who is not in God's holy word nearly enough For God's word does bring great joy Listen to what the psalmist says in Psalm 119 Psalm 119 verse number 14. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. I shall delight in your statutes and shall not forget your word Psalmist would go on to say in Psalm 119 verse number 92, if your law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction

It says in verse 111, I have inherited your testimonies forever for they are the joy of my heart. I wonder if God's word is the joy of your heart You see, there are times in your life and mine where because we have not remembered what God has said or we don't go back and read and meditate upon the law of God, we lose that great joy of the Lord Remember John the Baptist John the Baptist was the forerunner to the Messiah You know that He came to pave the way, to make straight the way for the Messiah

And he would proclaim that the Lord, according to the Psalmist and in fact twice in Psalm 40 and Psalm 110, that the Lord Messiah is the coming one That was the name for the Messiah And every Jewish mind believed that the title for the Messiah would be the coming one For he would be the one who would come to save the people, to redeem the people, to deliver the nation of Israel So he had this title called the coming one So John the Baptist introduced him as the coming one So that all the Jewish audience would know that this Messiah, this Jesus was the coming one that the Psalmist proclaimed

And so much so that the people in Israel believed and proclaimed that Jesus was that coming one And yet, in Luke chapter 7, John the Baptist finds himself in prison And is absolutely perplexed as to why he would be in prison as the forerunner to the Messiah And so he begins to wonder if Jesus is that true Messiah Now remember, he's already proclaimed him as the Messiah He's already proclaimed him as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world And yet now that he's in prison, none of things aren't going the way that John thought they were going to go

Now that things have been turned upside down in John's life, he begins to wonder maybe Jesus isn't who he says he is You ever been there? Sure you have You go through life and you believe in Jesus and you believe that Jesus is the Messiah He's God in the flesh and all of a sudden your world's turned upside down All of a sudden your husband says, I'm out of here. I'm done And there's a divorce All of a sudden one of your children is stricken ill and dies All of a sudden the job you thought you had you no longer have and you're completely broke and your life's turned upside down

And then you begin to wonder is Jesus who he says he is? If Jesus is God, then why am I in this situation? That's exactly where John the Baptist was And he was the forerunner of the Messiah And by the way, John knew a lot about the Old Testament In fact, he had spent a number of years on the back side of the desert in the Judean wilderness learning and growing in the prophecies of the Old Testament So that when he came on the scene bursting forth on the scene, proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah, proclaiming the kingdom of God is at hand You better repent

He truly believed that the kingdom was available because the king had arrived Until he went to prison and then he no longer believed Or at least he questioned his belief So he gathers his men around, his disciples Disciples of John the Baptist He says, I want you to go to Jesus and ask him, are you the Erechlami, the coming one? Are you the one we thought you were? Did I make a mistake? Did I tell everybody the wrong thing? So in Luke 7, these disciples of John go to Jesus and they ask him Now, this is very important because they go to him

It says, verse 20, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, are you the expected one? Are you the coming one? As Psalm 118 verse number 26 and Psalm 40 verse number 7 prophesied Or are we to look for somebody else? Because John has a question If you are the Messiah and you come to set the captives free, why is he in prison? If you're the Messiah and you have all these messianic credentials and you are the all-powerful God of the universe, why is he in prison? Because he's paving the way for you This doesn't seem to match up

So, it says at that very time, he, that is Jesus, cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits and he gave sight to many who were blind instantaneously Bam! He cured everybody around him and he answered and said to them, you go and report to John what you have seen and what you have heard The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached in them And blessed is he who does not take offense at me

In other words, what you've just seen, what you've just witnessed, and what you have just heard because he spoke the word and they were instantaneously healed, you go, you tell John what you saw and what you heard and you tell him this, that the blessed man, the joyous man, the man who has joy in his heart is the one who does not become offended at the way I do my business

You tell John that the blessed man, the true joyous man, the one who has contentment in his soul is the one who does not stumble over the fact that I am God and I'm going to do things the way I want to do them whether John's in prison or not in prison And of course John would end up losing his head and yet Jesus makes a profound statement Because you see what he did by healing everybody was prove, listen carefully, what the Old Testament had already said about the Messiah

The Old Testament had already said in Isaiah over and over and over again what the Messiah would do when he came to prove his messianic credentials And every healing that Jesus did authenticated the fact that he was the true Messiah And so what Jesus did by performing the miracles was reiterate in the mind of John's disciples what the Old Testament had already said about becoming the Messiah So Jesus levels an indictment against his forerunner John the Baptist because John the Baptist did not believe what the Old Testament had said about the Messiah

Because if he would have believed he would have never stumbled over the fact that Jesus does things the way he does and the Messiah does things the way he does them because he is the Messiah Very important And the man with true joy, the man who is truly blessed is the man who's able to say, wow, my Lord's in charge Whether I'm in prison or laying in a hospital bed, whether I am rich or whether I am poor, whether things are going my way or nothing is going my way, my God is still my God And my God speaks the truth and that great joy would resound in my heart

Is that not the same thing that took place on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection of the Christ? Sure it is Everybody was downcast because Jesus had just died But he already said he was going to suffer many things at the hands of the chief priests and scribes that he would be crucified and that he'd rise again the third day So why was everybody depressed after Jesus died? Because nobody believed what he said That's why He already told them that he would be victorious after his death, but they were downcast

So on that famous walk with these disciples from Jerusalem to Emmaus, it's called the Emmaus walk or the Emmaus road because there was a road that led from Jerusalem to Emmaus and we're not quite certain where Emmaus is today, but it was about a day's, not quite a day's journey away from from where Jerusalem was So they had quite a walk And Jesus shows up, but they don't recognize him because Jesus is in his glorified body and Jesus has chosen not to reveal himself to these two disciples

So he asked them, what are you guys so down about? Why are you guys so depressed? What is wrong? And they're like you haven't heard about Jesus the Messiah who was crucified and died Do you not know this? Where have you been? What country are you from that you don't know about the Messiah and that he died? And the Bible says this in Luke's gospel, the 24th chapter It says we were hoping that it was he, Jesus, who was going to redeem Israel

Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things had happened, but also some women among us amazed us when they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body They came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the woman also had said, but him they did not see They were perplexed even though Jesus wasn't even in the tomb He said to the most foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all the prophets have spoken

In other words, he says, you know why you're downcast? You know why you are depressed? Because you're foolish You're slow of heart You know why? Because you don't believe what the prophet said He's tying the heart's condition, he's tying the joy of your heart to the truths of the word of God So he says these words, was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures Now remember, they had no idea this was Jesus

He had not revealed himself to them So he's explaining to them what the Old Testament says, what the prophets had already said about what was going to happen with the Messiah And he approached the village where they were going and he acted as though he would go further But they urged him saying stay with us for it's getting toward evening and the day is now nearly over So he went in to stay with them When he had reclined at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed it and breaking it, he began giving it to them

Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight And they said to one another, were not our hearts burning with us while he was speaking to us on the road while he was explaining the scriptures to us? In other words, when Jesus was explaining to them the scriptures and they did not recognize that it was Jesus, all they heard was what the Old Testament said about the Messiah Their hearts were burning on the inside There was something that ignited a fire in the lives of the disciples

There was something ablaze in their soul because the word of God had been explained to them The word of God had been shown to them that this is what the Messiah was going to do This is what was going to happen to the Messiah and this is what the prophet said And their hearts were set ablaze by the truth of God's word Because God's word as Jeremiah 23 29 says, is not my word like a fire And it was Because when God's word is explained, when you appropriate the truth of God's word in the midst of your situation, your heart becomes ablaze with joy and satisfaction That's what God's word does

And that's why we believe that just not being actually in the presence of God because the disciples were often in the presence of the living God yet they were downcast, right? But it's when Jesus spoke the words of truth that caused them to experience joy and comfort in their hearts So we talked about the word of God being powerful, powerful enough to comfort the soul and powerful enough to cheer the soul That's what God's word does But it only happens when you understand what God's word says in conjunction with where you're at

Because it portrays to us the beauty and the glory of the risen king. I think that was number eight, wasn't it? For those of you keeping track from last week, for those of you who've lost track already, that's okay It's still number eight And now number nine. I have 15 of them God's word counsels the soul God's word counsels the soul It counsels the soul not only because of the necessity, the necessity of man's condition, but also because of the quality of the messiah's credentials That's important All of us are in need of counsel All of us need direction

But there's something about the word of Christ that provides for us the counsel that is needed that nothing else can That's why Christ is called in Isaiah 9 verse number 6, Counselor His name should be called Wonderful His name should be called Counselor His name should be called the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father But he's called the Counselor because when he speaks he gives counsel to lost souls Gives direction for people who are lost But there's something unique about the way God does that Let me share it to you this way

God's word is powerful enough to counsel the soul, right? If you believe in the word of God Incarnate is equivalent to the word of God Inspired, which it is Psalm 138 verse number 2 Thy word, O Lord, is magnified even as thy very name God's word is on the exact same plane as his name, his character, his nature And therefore his word is the voice that speaks truth Well, there's something about the Counselor that when he speaks is so unique So let me help you understand this because this is imperative for all of us to understand Let's do what the Bible says in Psalm 119 Psalm 119 verse number 24

Your testimonies also are my delight They are my Counselors Why does God's word cheer the soul? Because God's word is my Counselor As my Counselor, our God is personally close to every one of you Personally close to every single one of us The psalmist said in Psalm 139, if I ascend to heaven, thou art there If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there Hebrews 13 7 He has said I will never leave you nor will I ever forsake you He says in Psalm 32 verse number 6 that I will counsel you with my eye upon you Think about that The Lord says I'm going to counsel you with my eye upon you

You know what that's like? That's like me going to home with you today You come to me and you need counsel, right? You come to your pastor You go to one of your elders You need counsel So the best way for me to counsel you is to be personally close to you So when you get in your car to go home, I'm in your car When you get to your house, I go into your house with you When you go to bed at night, I am in your bedroom When you are in your kitchen, I am in your kitchen When you go to work, guess what? I'm sitting in the cubicle right next to you. I am so personally close to you

Why? So I can hear every word you say So I can watch everything you do How would you like that? You probably wouldn't like that, would you? But you see, because Christ is the ultimate counselor, he is personally close to every one of us because he knows about every attitude that you have That would be like me being with you and say, you know what? That's not how you say it You said it the wrong way Your attitude stinks right about now You got to change your attitude No, no, no, you can't go there Where are you going? Get out of there

That would be like me hounding you everywhere you went, everything you said, every attitude you portrayed You see, Christ is such a close counselor that he counsels you with his eye upon you In other words, he sees everything, hears everything, knows everything He is so personally close to you He'll never counsel you the wrong way He'll always give you the right way to go because he's personally close Because he is personally close, he is completely confidential Completely confidential In other words, he's not going to share what you're doing with anybody else

Because the Bible calls him in Hebrews chapter 2 verse number 17, a faithful high priest So what you share with him and what he sees you do, he's never going to share with anybody else You can't share what you do and what you go through with any other man or any other person without them at one time or some other time sharing with someone else what it is you said or what it is you did But with God, he is completely confidential because he is personally close On top of that, he is generously compassionate

Because the Bible calls him in Hebrews 4.15, a high priest who can sympathize with our infirmities Who has been tempted in all things like we have been tempted yet without sin He can be genuinely compassionate with you If you've been rejected, guess what? You have not nearly been rejected as Christ has been rejected Because everybody forsook him and fled If you're going through persecution, no one has been persecuted as much as Christ has been persecuted If you're going through physical and mental and emotional and verbal abuse, nobody has gone through the verbal abuse that Christ went through

They called him Satan They attributed all of his works to Satan They mocked him They spat upon him They abused him So he is now that merciful and faithful high priest who can understand your infirmities unlike any other counselor can because because he has gone through all points of temptation yet without sin We'll talk more about that when we get to that later on in verses 14 to 16 He is generously compassionate He is fully cognizant In other words, he understands and knows everything

The Bible says in John 2.25 that he did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man for he himself knew what was in man In fact, the psalmist says in Psalm 139, he knows the words you're going to say before they arrive on your lips That's somebody who's fully cognizant of everything that's going on in your life Knowing that he is totally capable of handling whatever it is you're going through because he can do exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ever ask or think And Psalm 32 says that he will instruct you in the way that you should go

On top of that, he is truly and absolutely correct in everything that he says because he cannot lie He is the truth And so therefore everything he says is absolutely correct He's never said anything wrong He's never made an error in judgment On top of that, he is wonderfully compelling In other words, he can compel you and move you unlike any other counselor Why? Because of the power of his words Listen, the law of Christ and the love of Christ are completely compelling We know, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, the love of Christ compels us It moves us

It motivates us, right? Well, the same is true with the law of Christ because the law of Christ comes from the Lord of love who is completely completely demonstrative in his love towards man And therefore he can compel us unlike anyone else And as we gather together today to partake of the Lord's table, we are once again reminding of the compelling work of God in our lives

Why do we study God's word? Why do we spend time going through each word of God's word? Why is it we spend time talking to you over and over again about the uniqueness and the unparalleled power of the word of God? Because it never returns empty When it goes forth, it always accomplishes the purpose that God has sent it forth So we rejoice in that

My joy, my desire for you and for me is that we would experience not just the joy of the Lord that truly comforts the soul but that we would experience the great counsel of God that directs us and moves us and compels us and is compassionate toward us because we know that he has always our best interest at stake And so when he counsels us through his word, he always leads us in the way of truth Let me pray with you Father, we thank you for today What a great joy we have in celebrating you as our king

What great joy we have in knowing that Lord, you are the great counselor and that your testimonies are our counselors and they cause great delight in our soul My prayer, Father, for all of us is that we would take great delight in your word and that as we spend time partaking of the Lord's table, you'd once again remind us of the great love of Christ that moves us and motivates us to live the glory of our king In Jesus name, amen.